Friday, January 19, 2007

The Sporting News has named the Baltimore Orioles as their worst franchise in baseball and their “MLB Expert” Matt Crossman wrote a little article about it.

The first thing I have to take issue with is that while the O’s have been a pretty sad sack franchise in recent memory, they are in no way the worst baseball franchise in MLB. Or the AL. Or their own division. Off the top of my head:

Devil RaysRoyalsPiratesRockies

I could make a good argument for the Brewers too and maybe even Cincinatti as more futile franchises. At least the O’s have been in the toughest division in baseball during the last nine years. (And evidently it only takes one year of success to make it off the list. Nobody was more god awful than the Tigers before last season’s run. And they weren’t exactly trending up before last season either.)

He hits on some low points throughout the last 12 years as backup for his case: Losing Davey Johnson, the Albert Belle injury, the Mussina departure and the Palmiero steroids debacle. Fine. All valid. But what about the rest of this crap:

The Jeffrey Maier Incident – I’m not sure how a cheatin’ little kid and a lousy ruling by the umpire that potentially cost us a playoff series is the O’s fault but here it is laid out as evidence by Mr. Crossman.

Sidney Ponson – He’s not the first or last pitching prospect to underperform for this or any team. Happens every year, really no one’s fault. If he had mentioned the lack of major league talent developed overall in the O’s farm system, he would have a strong point. But one guy not panning out? Please.

The Sammy Sosa Deal – The O’s traded two nothing prospects and Jerry Hairston (a nothing major leaguer) for an aging slugger who they thought might be able to rebound. Oh, the Cubs picked up most of his salary that season too. You make that trade 10 times out of ten. It didn’t work out but the O’s didn’t lose anything of significance and were off the hook after one year. Just because the player turns out to be washed up doesn’t make it a bad move.

I stopped being a subscriber to the Sporting News years ago and this article reminds me why.